E    I  I_e -X___                -
N 28 IHE INDUSTRY
OF THE
FRE.DMEN OF AMERICA.
PART I.-CHIEFLY AS SHOWN BY THOSE EMAN        CIPATED BEFORE THE WAR.
PART II.-AS PROMOTED BY THE AMERICAN
FREEDI)        UNION COMMISSION, AND
OTHii   ED ASSOCIATIONS.
ISSETFD AND PUBLISHED BY
THE NA'TIONAL FREEDMEN'S AID UNION:
SIR T. F. BUXTON, BART., M.P., President.
A. IIAMPSON, Secre(tary, 12, B,shopsgate Without, London.
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PART iT.
EXTRACTS
THE FREEDMEN'S INQUIRY COMMISSION,
AND OTHER AUTHORITIES,
DEMONSTRATIVE OF THE  INDUSTRIOUS AND SELFSUSTAINING ABILITY OF THE FREE PEOPLE OF COLOUR
IN THE UNITED STATES.:
* e
The Freedmen's Inquiry Commission was appointed by President
Lincoln.  It has presented two reports, which are models of exhaustive research and well-classified information.
Dr. Howe, one of those Commissioners, as the educator of Laura
Bridgman, the celebrated blind, deaf, and dumb girl, and from other
causes, has an European reputation.
1.-" In the city of Washington, containing sixteen
thousandsfree coloured persons, the free coloured people
support their own poor without alms-house aid, and
scarcely a beggar is found among them."-Freedmen's
Inquiry Commission Report, p. 3.
2.-Mrs. Daniel Breed, "an intelligent lady, wife of a
physician in Washington, deposed before the Commission,
'I have known but two instances of beggary by coloured
people during my residence of ten years in this city.
A few are supported by charity from their own churches.'"
-Idem, p. 3.
297703
0
FROM THE REPORTS OF
': 
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3.-"In Alexandria, and in various other places, it
came to the knowledge of the Commission that one of the
first acts of the negroes, when they found themselves free,
was to establish schools at their own expense."-Idem,
p. 4.
4.-" Scarcely any beggars are found among them.
Like the Quakers, they maintain their own poor. When
a case occurs in which a family is unable to meet the
expenses of sickness, or perhaps the cost of a funeral, it
is In.on  themselves alone that a subscription paper,
usC&al yfalled a'pony purse,' passes in aid of the sufferers."
— Freedmen's  Inquiry  Comnmission.    Report,  1864.
p. 100.
5.-" One hears current among slaveholders the assertion that negroes emancipated and left to themselves are
worthless and helpless, and are sure in the end to become
a burden on the community.  But the Commission has
not found in a single locality occupied by numbers of free
negroes pioof that there is any truth in such an opinion;
on the contrary, the actual facts are all against it."Freedmen's Inquiry Report.
6.-One remarkable fact has been just published from
the Freedmen's Aid Bureau, viz.: —That in the State of
Texas, where in 1860 there were 182,000 slaves, there are
now only 67 persons receiving Government support.
(Feb., 1866.)
7.-The Commission ascertained that the free coloured
people of Louisiana, in the year 1860, paid taxes on an
1.7 
5
assessment of thirteen millions. But by the census of
1860, the free coloured population of that State is put at
18,647. This would give an average for each person of
about seven hundred dollars of property. But the average
amount of property to each person throughout the loyal
free States is estimated at four hundred and eighty-four
dollars only. It follows that the free coloured people of
Louisiana (even supposing their numbers to be more correctly estimated as the Commission were informed might
be the case, at 25,000) are, on the average, richer by seven
and a half per cent. than the people of the Northern States.
And this occurs, it should be remembered, under many
civil disabilities, which are a great pecuniary injury
seriously restricting the means of accumulating property.
-Idem, p.  101.
8.-Throughout the State the coloured people manage
their own church affairs. A great many of the churches
now owned by them had been failures in the hands of
white people. The negroes bought and paid for them,
and have improved them very much since the purchase.Idemn, p. 101.
9.-The coloured citizens of New Orleans own real
estate to the value of 15,000,000 dollars, and they Cows
have a dairy newspaper, the Tribune, printed and edited
by coloured mnen.-Idemrn.
10.-A Southern man, says Sir Mlorton Peto, made the
following answer to his letter of enquiry:-" Born in
Louisiana, on my father's sugar plantation near New
Orleans, I have known slavery in all its phases, though 
6
I have had no connection with it for twelve years. Two
years ago, after the emancipation of the slaves, one of my
father's plantations in Louisiana came into my hands.
There were 150 negroes on the plantation. From that
day to this I have not heard an instance of difficulty'
among the workmen. The gentleman who leased the
property for a number of years is a Southerner, and was
a very ardent Secessionist. He is also a truly Christian
man. He writes me that he has had no difficulty with
his workmen that was not very easily arranged by conversation. They have been paid regularly every month
their full wages, their children go to school, and the work
of the plantation goes on with greater alacrity than when
the negroes were slaves. The same may be said of several
plantations in the neighbourhood where the workmen are
regularly paid and kindly treated. I have no fears for the
future of the Freedmen, unless they are driven by harsh
laws to array themselves against the whites."
The same writer mentions that a friend of his, Colonel
Drury, who owned a large estate, only lost 3 out of 1000
labourers after freedom was granted.
1 l.-General Howard's Report to Congress, "that he
had found them on the whole order-loving, law-abiding,
and self-helpful," is specially and signally confirmed by
the address which General Jenkins, Governor of Georgia,
made to the Legislature of the State-appealing to it
when in session-to confirm the declaration "that in the
main the conduct of the negroes has. been praiseworthy
beyond all rational expectation; and that their fidelity in 
the past, and their decorum under the distressing circumstances of the present, are without a parallel in history."
As this message was delivered to an assembly mainly
ccmposed of the Planters of that State, which before the
war contained 462,000, or the largest slave population of
any State, and as the planters' idea of praiseworthy conduct and decorum is known to consist mainly in that of
hard work, nothing can seem more conclusive than this
evidence.
12.-" There is no more distress among those who have
been free for a year, than among the same number of poor
in Philadelphia."
13. —" The Contraband Camp in the Department of
the Cumberland have this year raised 300,000 dollars
worth of cotton."
"Last spring I visited the Contraband Camp at Huntsville, Ala. It contained about 300 persons, one half of
whom were ill. It was entirely dependent on the Government and charity of the North. It was the scene of
squalor and misery beyond description. Mark the change.
But a few weeks since I visited it again-population
about the same; on the sick-list two —camp, nearly selfsupporting; and had it not been for the raid upon the
plantation they would have returned to the Government
all with which they were supplied last year. And these
were women and children, and a few men unfit for the
army.
*** Statements made by Wm. Forster Mitchell, Nashville, Tennessee,
a gentleman of high character, whose ability equals his benevolence.
He is named after the father of Wm. E. Forster, Esq., M.P., the
late Under-Secretary of the Colonies.
7 
8
The following, as of recent date, and relating to Nashville and Richmond, and especially the case of the latter
city, as so recently delivered from the siege and ravage of
war, are wonderful evidences of high Christian citizenship,
scarcely of their kind to be equalled anywhere:  General Fisk's last official, but unpublished Report
from Tennessee, states that a Provident Association has
been formed at Nashville, capital of Tennessee, conducted
by the coloured people, which relieves the suffering poor
without distinction of colour, that more whites than
coloured people are its beneficiaries, and that many widows
and orphans whose husbands and fathers fell fighting to
perpetuate slavery, have been fed and warmed through
the kindly offices of" The Freedmen's Associationfor the
Relief of the Poor." "History does not afford a more
striking illustration of Christian magnanimity."
NEGROES IN RIcHMOND.-There are some twenty-five
thousand coloured persons in Richmond. Between 6,000
and 7,000 are members in good standing of Christian
churches, and nearly all attend services regularly. There
are at least 200 men among this population who are worth
from 2,000 dollars to 500 dollars, 200 who have property
estimated at from 500 dollars to 5,000 dollars, and a
number who are worth from 5,000 dollars to 20,000
dollars.-From  " Western  Freedmen's  Bulletin" for
Jlanuary, 1864, published at Cltieago. 
PART Ii.
STATEMENTS IN PROOF OF
THE
INDUSTRIOUS CHARACTER
OF THE
FREEDMEN OF AMERICA,
OF THE
SUCCESS OF ENTERPRISES DEPENDENT ON THEIR
WORK AS FIELD LABOURERS,
AND OF THE
GREAT IMPORTANCE, IN THIS CONNECTION, OF THE
CO-OPERATIVE EFFORETS OF
FREEDMEN'S- AID   ASSOCIATIONS
TOWARDS INCREASING FURTHER SUPPLIES OF
COTTON FROM THE UNITED STATES.
FOR several of the subjoined facts, we are indebted directly or
indirectly to the Official Report on the Freedmen of South
Carolina to the Secretary of the Treasury, Washington; to the
First and Second Annual Reports of the Education Commission
for Freedmen, Boston, 1863, 1864; and to the First and Second
Reports of the Freedmen's Inquiry Commissions
The subjoined Statement comprises also the testimony of official and
othier persons-American and English-most of them known to
us as entirely unimpeachable witnesses.
But there is one illustration, which has often been referred to, of the
industrial capacity of the Freed people (we do not need to
restrict it to the Freed mnen), which, specially marked off by its
own peculiar features and circumstances, deserves to be treated
distinctly, and with at least sufficient detail to make its merits
fairly understood.
We have before us four narratives of this experimental transaction,
each one, we believe, entirely to be relied on; from which we
collate and condense, as best suited to convey in nearly the
words of the narrators a true and significant relation of it.
THE Sea Islands, so well known as those which give a
name to the highest description of Cotton, fell into
the hands of the Federal troops,  November  14th, 186t.
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The planters fled to the main, taking, as far as possible,
their best field and house slaves, and leaving behind them
9,050 persons, a large proportion of whom were aged,
infirm, and children. A good deal of corn and cotton
fell into the hands of the Government —most of the cotton
was unginned, some still on the stalk. The infirm class
of labourers remaining on these 189 plantations were paid
seemingly fair, but under the circumstances really meagre,
wages. These were made even poorer when in a few cases
base agents intervened.   On  December  16th, 186t
following, shipments of Cotton by the Government agent
commenced, and, by Junie 13th, 1862, amounted to
1,166,330 lbs., leaving some more yet to be shipped
About one-half of it was ginned, some of which sold for
72 cents per lb., and even more.   The Government,
encouraged by this industrial success, determined to plant
a new crop for the season of 1862. The conducting of
this work was entrusted to a Mr. Pierce, of Boston, who
had been'private Secretary to the Minister of the Treasury,
and who had previously proved that he could turn to
account the industry of the Contrabands-as the escaped
slaves were then termed.  But Mr. Pierce was no mere
successful task-master;  he seems, in  truth, perhaps
undesignedly, to have been if not a Founder yet a Pioneer
of the Freedmen's-Aid Associations, and to have given their
operations an important practical direction at the very out,
set. Roused by appeals from himself and anotheroldfriend
of the present Chief-Justice Chase, and by those of General
Sherman and Commnander Dupont, a band of ladies and 
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gentlemen and superintendents of industry, about 90 in
number, gathered in Boston and New York. Philadelphia
came in with a contribution of 6,000 dollars. With these
and other contributions timely supplies were furnished,
which, feeding the hungry, and clothing the naked, cheered
the hearts of the blacks, strengthened also the hands of
their white friends, and drew forth warm acknowledgments from Mr. Pierce and his coadjutors. Mr. Pierce
received his commission in February, 1862; his first
coadjutors, about fifty in number, landed at Beaufort on
the 9th of March.   Besides the teaching of the young,
they directed their efforts to the promotion of self-respect
and self-restraint, and the inculcation of lessons of
morality and religion among all the people. The war
had wrought evil work with them as well as with all the
appliances needful for cultivating the soil. Instead of
early February it was the last of March before the real
work for raising the new crop began. Besides the delay,
there were other difficulties to contend against.  The
Freedman's forethought was for the food of the next
winter, and in that view he had been counselled by the
soldiers who had lately quitted the Islands. The persuasion of the agents and teachers (most of them in
all respects ladies and gentlemen) located on the 189
plantations of these swampy islands, was required to
overcome the repugnance to the cultivation of Cotton-as
recalling, if not renewing, to the Freedmen the reign of
Slavery. But in spite of all difficulties, this population,
not comprising more than 3,800 able-bodied men, had 
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laboured so industriously, that in June, 1862, above
16,000 acres were bearing flourishing crops, giving an
average of over four acres to every able-bodied man.
5480 acres were under Cotton 6 to 12 inches high, which
at the end of the first season sufficed to pay the whole
cost of the experiment.   Corn enough for the community until the next harvest was also stored up, and
the sum of 40,000 dollars clear profit paid into the
United States Treasusy.-(Vide Edinburgh Review,
Jan.-April, 1864, p. 229.)   It is doubtful if this is not
incorrect by one cipher too few, as it is stated in the
Second Annual Report of the "Educational Commissicn
of the New England Freedmen's-Aid Society," that the
large sum derived by the Government from the sale of
Cotton and other merchandise from the Sea Islands,
amounted in January, 1863, to 422,000 dollars, over
and above all expenses.
How these experiments of the working of 1862 affected
both those who superintended and those by whose labour
it was carried out, maybe seen by the following Extract:
-"The success of one of our Superintendents in conducting two of the largest plantations for the Government
was so great, that he has, in connection with some friends
at the North, purchased eleven plantations, comprising
about 8000 acres, and is carrying them on this season by
means of the old men, the women, and children,-most
of the young and able-bodied men being now enlisted
in the army of the United States."-(First Annual
Rel)ort of the Educational Commnission for Freedmen.) 
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This Agent, there is little doubt, was Mr. Philbrick,
whose operations are reported in the next Annual Report
as having raised, at "perhaps a little lower than the average
former cost," and with this inferior labour-mainly of
women, children, and old men-two-thirds of an ordinary
crop. In the same year these blacks were making sales of
minor market commodities to at least 150,000 dollars.
Then, as to the Freedmen themselves. At the end of
the first year, at the sale which took place in March, 1863,
four plantations, containing 3,500 acres, were bought by
the Freedmen living upon them. At the sales of 1864,
further tracts of land were purchased by them for about
40,000 dollars.  All these purcheases were madefronm the
savings of two years.
In relation to these facts, the North American Review
declared it could be claimed that the coloured population
of the Sea Islands ha,l been brought in two years from
a state of utter destitution and ignorance to absolute
prosperity and partial education, under all the disadvantages of military occupation and actual war, by two comparatively feeble Societies in Boston and New York,
aided by one in Philadelphia.
It ought to be added that the Negroes of these Islands
were regarded as the most "animalized" in all the United
States, and their whole previous condition to have made
up as desperate a case, for this kind of effort, as could
well be conceived.
From the published letters of Joseph Simpson, Esq.,
of Manchester, we are enabled to give a confirmation, of 
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a later date, of continued prosperity in these islands.
Writing from Cincinnati, June 28th, 1865, he says:
"One of the old slave-owners, Dr. Fuller, who held
part of one of these very islands, accompanied the judge
(Chase) thither, last month, in the full belief that his
views as to Negro "incapacity," etc., would be confirmed.
But after carefully examining all which had been done in
the interim, he frankly confessed that he had never seen
the land in better order, nor the people so happy and
prosperous. His views were completely changed."
The experience of Colonel Eaton in the valley of the
Mississippi, in one year only, speaks volumes in a few
words. Grieved at the sufferings of the fugitive Negroes,
he urged their claims upon General Grant, who, in consequence, appointed him General Superintendent of the
Freedmen.
He arrived at Vicksburg, August, 1863, when the only
industry among 20,000, was performed by twelve axes,
and where such fearful scenes were to be witnessed as, he
says, "were, if anything could do so, calculated to make
one doubt the policy of emancipation."
By July 5th, 1864, 11.3,650 Freedmen had passed
under his hands, of whom 10,500 only were not entirely
self-supporting-but that number, including 7,200 who
were old and young, crippled and sick, were employed
either for prospective wages or for present relief in cultivating 5,500 acres of Cotton, and 1,300 acres in Corn
and Vegetables, besides working at wood chopping. In
all his district over 10,000 acres of cotton were under 
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cultivation; some individual blacks managing as high as
300 to 400 acres.
And this great change, in one short year, had been
effected mainly by the labours of Colonel Eaton, and a
few noble co-workers-men and women sent out by a
philanthropic Freedmen's-Aid Commission at Cincinnati.
We think the above case of the Sea Islands, and that
of Colonel Eaton in the Mississippi, prove to demonstration the great value in an economico-industrial point of
view, of the action and influences of Freedmen's-Aid
Societies.
We are enabled from the Second Annual Report of the
"New England Freedmen's- Aid Society," to give from
the report of Mr. Yeatman, President of the Sanitary
Commission, the following facts relating to the valley of
the Mississippi:  "General Thomas, in his report of the 15th October,
1868, states that fifteen coloured lessees had made cotton
ranging from four to one hundred and fifty bales.
"Patrick (coloured), near Milliken's bend, made about
twenty-seven bales, with six or seven persons to
aid him.
"One hundred and fifty-three bales of cotton were
raised at Goodrich's Landing, by twenty-two coloured
men, who leased land and worked it on their own account.
The average is seven bales; and one man raised fortyseven.
"Six negroes raised sixty-two bales —an average of
twelve. 
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"At an average of 140 dollars (the net price paid for
101 bales, which had been sold), the proceeds of these
bales would be 94,560 dollars, which would give each of
the planters 2,300 dollars."
We are justified in stating that cases, similar in character
and result to the above, might be cited as having occurred
in several other Cotton States.
THE GAIN OF EMANCIPATION.
Hon. Joseph Segur, of Virginia, in a recent speech
at Richmond, Virginia, declared that the Southern people
were "inexpressible gainers by emancipation."
In the course of his remarks, he said:-" I speak from
experience and observation. In my own country, where
emancipation has been in practical operation from the
commencement of the war, and on the Eastern shore of
Virginia, where the policy has been fairly tested, it is an
ascertained fact that the farmers make more clear money
with hired coloured labour than they did when they cultivated the farms with their own slaves.   The  profit
is generally doubled, sometimes trebled."-From the
Freedman, December, 1865, New York, 61, Walker St.
ESTIMATED CHEAPNESS OF FREE LABOUR.
General Banks, who for a lengthened period was
charged with the regulation of the Freedmeni's condition
in Louisiana during the war, in a lecture delivered at a
meeting of a Young Men's Christian Association in the
autumn of 1864, declared his belief that, under a well 
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established free labour system, Cotton might be grown
at very much lower prices than by slaves.
It is a fact that twice in the decade ending about 1857
the crop of uplands Cotton had been sold for five cents
per pound; and as we believe no one who will accept the
teaching of experience doubts the greater cheapness of
free labour, it does not seem unreasonable that a similar
price, or one not exceeding eight cents, may obtain
hereafter.
Anything that will accelerate the change from the
present rates to prices like those now indicated, must be
an immense gain to Lancashire and Great Britain
generally, both in the economic and sanitary condition of
all our people, and in a manufacturing and financial point
of view.
It is a moderate statement to say that the dference
between to-day's price of Cotton and that which may be
certainly expected if a free labour system is soon established, is equal to the annual interest of our National Debt.
THE CHARACTER, WORK, AND RESULTS OF
THE FREEDMEN'S-AID ASSOCIATIONS
(OR COMMIISSIONS).
The American Consul at Birmingham, has shown in a
small naive narrative, called "How the Boys behaved,"
-and which he certifies as only simp]e truth-with what
success the Negroes managed the properties abandoned
to their care during the war. The effect of their conduct
was to convince even pessimist planters from Mississippi,
and another from Georgia, of the value of free labour, and 
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to induce co-operation with the latter by some Manchester
capitalists, for the purchase and cultivation of large
Cotton estates.
A gentleman, sent out from Lancashire to inspect some
enterprises of this kind, having discovered that he has
the faculty of managing the coloured people in their new
character of Freedmen, has returned to the United States
to turn his ascertained power to his own account.
The importance of combining instruction and training
with the relief of suffering and the supplies of material
help, is recognized to be so great that it has become with
the Freedmen's Commission  an axiom never to be lost
sight of-that the expenditure of 500 dollars in absolutely
Weeded supplies, and 500 dollars for a Teacher-Agent, will
go much farther, even in an economic point of view, than
1000 dollars all spent on the same community in measures
of material aid.
It is not easy in a few words to state how in various
ways this.occurs, but we may supply one or two plain
illustrations.
In not a few cases the Freedmen have refused to continue working on estates in the vicinity of which there
were no schools, and both they and the planters are frequent
in their applications to the Secretary of the Commission
to have teachers sent to them.   (The  Freedmen  of
Louisiania have 144 schools, and entirely support the
139 teachers whom they engage.)
The Freedmen have been known to refuse entering
into Contracts for labour until assured by their teachers 
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that the Form of Contract was not a written instrument
designed to re-enslave them.
One of the most important witnesses to whom we can refer in connection with this subject is Joseph Simpson, Esq.,
of Manchester, who, in the spring of 1865, accepted from
the Central Committee of the Society of Friends for the
Relief of the Emancipated Slaves of North America-an
honorary Commission-to make a tour of investigation
both as to the condition of the Freedmen and the work
of the Associations in their aid.
This gentleman's sympathies had been avowedly on the
side of the South, but it was only as a partisan of truth
that he undertook a task which was neither without severe
toil or peril to health.
After spending some months in various parts of the
States, he writes, on his return to Manchester on
September 9th, 1865, to sum up the results of his tour
in the following terms:  "And, speaking of the American Freedmen's-Aid
Societies, I feel bound to state my conviction that better
organisations do not exist anywhere than those of New
York, Boston, Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Cincinnati.
Of these I can speak from personal knowledge. Doubtless
the same remark applies to others. During our "Cotton
Distress" in Lancashire I acted on two working Committees for the distribution of funds amongst our mill
"hands;" and I can safely say that neither in simplicity
of organization, freedom from party'bias, economy of
working expenses, nor a conscientious desire to discharge 
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a solemn duty in an honest, straightforward way, do the
American Associations come one whit behind any Committee of which I have any knowledge. It is a noble
sight to see the way in which men of all shades of religious
and political belief (opulent business men and others)
cheerfully unite in this work, sparing neither time, money,
nor fatigue, in promoting the welfare of the Freedmen,
which they deem a sacred trust. They feel that such a
chance of doing good may never occur again; and now
that they have got the small end of the wedge safely
inserted, they mean to "drive it home" with all their
might whilst opportunity offers.
"Already England has done much in this good work,
and few things pleased me more in my travels than the
oft-repeated expressions of gratitude  to  the "mother
country" for her timely aid. I know that these thanks
were sincere, and am equally satisfied that few things will
tend more to bring the two great countries into that true
concord which should ever exist between them, than such
an evidence of brotherly sympathy as our English subscriptions would afford.
"And now, at the risk of repetition, I may state as the
result of my observations   "First,-That an almost incredible amount of destitution and misery prevails, and will continue to prevail,
owing to the disorganised condition of society in the immense area over which the Freedmen are distributed, and
the hostility of the Southerners to their former slaves. 
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"Second,-That as a rule the Freedmen are not only
capable of sustained labour, but most desirous to obtain
employment at equitable wages; that they are not idle
but anxious to work.
"'Third,-That wherever schools have been established,
the Freedmen, both young and old, have shown an extraordinary desire and capacity to learn.
"Fourth,-That the  American  Government is endeavouring, through the agency  of the "Freedmen's
Bureau," to protect and care for the millions of Freedmen
so suddenly cast upon it.
"Fifth,-That the Christian population of the Northern
States, through its various Freedmen's Aid Societies, are
working with a zeal and energy which cannot be surpassed,
to mitigate the distress, and to teach and enlighten the
coloured population.
"Sixth,-That the sympathy and aid of the English
people in this great work are most gratefully appreciated
and have already done much to soften the hostile feeling
which was engendered towards England during the war.
"And lastly,-That this sympathy and this aid are
still imperatively required.
"The "Freedmen's Bureau" is increasing in efficiency
every day, and labours diligently to suppress outrage and
injustice towards the  coloured  people.   Many good
Abolitionists were at first inclined to question the usefulness of the Bureau. They feared it might be rendered
comparatively useless by the trammels of official red 
22
tapeism. But thanks to the wisdom and thl)e energy of
the head of the Department, General Howard, it is now
doing a noble work, and daily proving a real blessing
to  those  whose   interests  are  committed  to  its
keeping."
The following estimate of the result of free labour in the Southern
States, from Messrs. Neill Brothers and Co.'s circular, dated New
York, December 4, 1866, is most comprehensive and conclusive. It
is an extract from the report of Major-General Sickles, commanding
the department of the South, presented to Congress:  "The- misgivings of many planters as to the disposition of free
negroes to work for wages gradually gave way. It soon became
evident, that with proper energy, capital, patience, and tact on the
part of the landholders, if they failed to make good crops, the failure
would neither result from the lack of available hands, nor from the
omission of the military authorities to exert a proper influence upon
the labouring population.
"It is only just to declare, as the result of my observations, that
the conduct of the coloured population has deserved all praise, and
justifies the belief that, as Freedmen, they will become reliable,
worthy, and useful citizens. And now, at the close of the year, I do
not hesitate to affirm, that where the season has been favourable,
wages liberal, facilities for culture ample, the superintendence diligent
and judicious, and the labourers well treated, the average production
has been equal to ordinary years before emancipation.'Wherever
the planters wish the thing to succeed, it is successful."'
All General Sickles' antecedents make his testimony the more
valuable.
Miss Elizabeth Jones, a teacher at Roanoke Island, North Carolina,
who has been making an extensive tour on the mainland, reports
much suffering among both white and coloured-a part the result of
their own ignorance and folly, and a part the inevitable result of the 
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habits of theicir former life. The old planters are often unable to
secure profitable labour from their former slaves, and predict that
they will fall way as the Indians have.  She found, in Martin
County, a Northerner who had purchased a farm, and commenced
farming under the most unfavourable circumstances. It had been
running wild during the war, was growing up to pine trees, fences
destroyed, ditches filled up, &c. As he had built a steam mill by a
gushing river, and was doing a good business there, he could not be
present daily at his farm, so he hired an overseer, called the.coloured
ones together, and said: "I want labourers.  I intend to cultivate
so many acres in cotton. This man will oversee the work, not to
oppress, but to encourage and direct. Those who work well shall be
paid well. Those who do not will be immediately paid and discharged."  The men were pleased, have done well, and are now
picking such a crop of cotton as the astonished natives never saw
before.  They say, "The niggers will work for him because he is a
Yankee."'
W. R. KING, PRINTER, SWAN PASSAGE, BIRMINGHAM,